Firefighters weren’t allowed near Manchester attack scene for TWO HOURS

Firefighters – some who heard the bomb go off and trained in first-aid for terror scenarios – did not get permission to go to the scene until hours after the blast.

This came despite the nearest station being half a mile away, a 226-page report by Lord Bob Kerslake ruled.

"Strategic oversights" by police commanders led to confusion with other 999 services over whether an "active shooter" was on the loose, it was ruled.

And poor communications between Greater Police (GMP) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) meant the "valuable" assistance of fire crews was delayed by two hours and six minutes.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his home-made device at 10.31pm on May 22, last year, in the foyer of Arena as 14,000 people streamed out at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

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Officers from British Transport Police were on the scene one minute later and declared a major incident by 10.39pm.

The police duty inspector in the Greater Manchester Police control room declared Operation Plato, a pre-arranged plan when it is suspected a marauding armed terrorist may be on the loose.

But he assumed, wrongly, other agencies were aware.

However, he was praised for taking one of the most crucial "life or death" decisions of the night, a "key use of discretion" to over-ride the rules and allow paramedics and police already on scene to continue treating the injured even though they may be in danger of further attacks.

GMFRS and the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) were only informed an hour and a half later.

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Greater Manchester Police have confirmed a terrorist attack has killed at least 22 at the MEN Arena as concertgoers were leaving an Ariana Grande show.

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Police Respond To An Incident At Manchester Arena

And by then, Operation Plato was effectively put on "stand by" as it emerged the attack was from a single suicide bomber and not the prelude to further armed attacks.

Armed police and twelve ambulances were on the scene within 20 minutes, but there was a shortage of stretchers to ferry the injured from the foyer to a casualty area on the concourse of Manchester Victoria Station, under the arena.

The senior fire officer on duty, a national inter-agency liaison officer, came to believe an "active shooter" scenario was still in play and stuck to rules which dictate keeping emergency responders 500 metres away from any suspected "hot" zone of danger from a potential armed terrorist.

It was "fortuitous" the NWAS were not informed – otherwise they may have pulled out their paramedics and instead they stayed and "lives were saved", the report said.

As the fire officer could not get through on the phone to the police force duty officer the response of the fire service was "brought to the point of paralysis to the "immense frustration on the firefighters' faces."

Instead of rushing to the scene to help, fire crews and a special response team, trained to deal with terrorist incidents, rendezvoused at a fire station outside the city centre.

And while a joint strategic co-ordinating group of emergency response services and others gathered at GMP HQ in east Manchester, GMFRS chief fire officer Peter O'Reilly, who has now retired, focused his senior officers at their own HQ in Salford, which played a "key role" in delaying the response further.

The report – commissioned by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham – set out to assess the preparedness and emergency response to the attack on last year.

No individuals are named but the report makes 50 recommendations.

The panel of experts state they are not able to say whether earlier arrival of the fire service would have "affected any casualty's survivability".